


Evening star, morning star

by Hyarrowen



Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - All Media Types, The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: Astronomy, Gen, Homesickness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 12:24:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8102293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyarrowen/pseuds/Hyarrowen
Summary: It's a strange feeling. Everywhere I go, I'm the first. Step outside the rover? First guy ever to be there! Climb a hill? First guy to do that.  Four and a half billion years.  Nobody here.  And now, me. Even Mark Watney has his reflective moments.





	

Sometimes, at the end of a sol, I'll find a low hill, or an easy crag, and clamber up it and just sit for a while. On a piece of insulation, of course. No need to suffer a numb ass. It's the only one I've got.

I take a hammer with me, and a bag to put the samples in. Even if I don't make it back to _Hermes_ , I'm going to give NASA the best transect of the planet for decades to come. Neatly labelled, the rocks go in the trailer, sol after sol.

After I finish hammering bits off the landscape, the vast, empty, silent landscape, I'll sit down, and watch the sun set. At the moment, it's a spectacular sight, even by Martian standards, because there are two evening stars.

Two goddesses up there in the gathering dusk, as the more distant stars pinprick the sky. One of them has a familiar, clear, white light, though not as bright as I remember it from my former life.

And then there's the other one, the evening star you can never see from Earth. Even across that impossible void, the color is unmistakable. The blue planet. Home. 

If I had a powerful enough pair of binoculars I could make out the continents. Maybe even spot Chicago. Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!

Sometimes I feel less alone out here on the red surface than I did in the Hab.

Pretty soon now, Earth will vanish out of the evening sky. A while after that, she'll become the morning star, shining like a beacon as I turn east for Schiaparelli. Herald of a new dawn, symbol of hope: guiding me back home.

**Author's Note:**

> I confess I have no idea whether the orbits would work out to give the configuration necessary here. Perhaps it's just a metaphor.


End file.
